Paraguay

Paraguay’s music caught me immediately. Although I needed to watch The Mission twice in 1986 to understand what the Jesuits were doing in Paraguay and who was attacking the Guaraní, it’s the oboe solo that has stuck with me through the years. If you haven’t heard it, or if you are as obsessed with “Gabriel's Oboe” as I am, see here for the full piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7w-IeNR9ko

There is more, as the soundtrack of The Mission isn’t the only great music honoring Paraguay. This Paraguayan folk harp performance has been my recent inspiration for getting work done when I need to concentrate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgQtcU4zbZs

There are more Paraguayan musicians. I am most impressed that some of them make instruments even when they have nothing but garbage for materials. See this TEDx for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsfOvJEdurk and please note that the commitment to recycling is also shown in the children’s playgrounds that are made with painted tires: https://www.wfwp.org/news/recycling-tires-for-the-environment-wfwp-paraguay

I found both the recycling musicians and a glimpse of dancing women who balance bottles on their heads on the most recent season of The Amazing Race on Hulu, season 32, episode 4. The full dance is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMacCsP9Oy4

The food took me longer than the music to pull together. I haven’t made it to Café Guaraní in Pacific Grove, but fortunately, Kaitlin and her friends have no problem with me cooking for them and agreed to a weekend brunch. I ordered the yerba mate and the guava paste online in advance, but surprisingly I found the mayonesa with lime and the queso fresco at Stater Bros. The vegetarian by special request menu included Paraguayan versions of:

· Cornbread: https://www.all-thats-jas.com/paraguayan-cornbread/

· Rice salad: https://chipabythedozen.com/en/paraguayan-rice-salad/

· Pumpkin polenta: https://www.196flavors.com/paraguay-kiveve/

· Yerba mate: https://www.196flavors.com/paraguay-terere/

· Guava pie: https://www.196flavors.com/paraguay-pasta-frola/

All was good and the rice salad was great, so I remade it for a book group.

One of my favorite things to do while looking at food from a country is get an interpretation from Anthony Bourdain. I can’t find the whole Paraguayan episode of Parts Unknown online, but I’ve watched all the clips available, including this one where Tony learns about his great-great-great grandfather’s time in Paraguay and gives some of its history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEgD5oEOe6M

La Chiperita, a sweet love story that has a food connection, is worth watching: https://pluto.tv/en/on-demand/movies/la-chiperita-2015-1-1. If it inspires you to make chipa, the recipe is here: https://chipabythedozen.com/en/chipa-almidon-paraguayan-gluten-free-bread/

Because stevia (an alternative to sugar) is from Paraguay, I also read The Stevia Solution Cookbook by Caleb Warnock in preparation for this blog. I have enough friends who have switched to stevia that I’m sure I can put the techniques I learned into practice.

Having enjoyed exploring the food, I turned to history and literature. The two Paraguayan documentaries on Kanopy that caught my attention are Paraguay: The Revolution was in the Ballot Box about the 2008 transition from dictatorship to democracy, and From Honey to Ashes about an isolated group of hunter-gatherers who decide to settle and interact with the developed outside world.

Literature from Paraguay includes both the work of Augustos Roa Bastos (see Ann Morgan’s review of I, The Supreme at https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/2012/12/14/paraguay-remembrance-of-things-past/) and contemporary Guaraní poetry: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2020-07/july-2020-indigenous-writing-project-guarani-an-introduction-elisa-taber/

I would love to go, not just because I would love to go to any of the countries that I have blogged about, but also because I’ve heard the music, eaten the food, and read some of the literature, but I haven’t made the usual connection where I have met someone from the country. If I do go, here are some of the places I would want to see: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-paraguay/

In the meantime, I hope for a time when we can all travel, as we survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Paraguay and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Ecosistema Urbano/Frédéric Hayen https://www.flickr.com/photos/ecosistemaurbano/21943555949/